Yeah but it also makes a lot of sense from a talent attraction side. People in cheap areas need less pay to be attracted to work at a company and someone living in a large city will require more to want to work at your company. It sucks a bit from the remote work dream of getting FAANG West Coast salaries while living in the middle of nowhere but that was always a bit of a pipe dream for most people, they can pay you less and still far out pay the local competition, the only way to really get that would be for everyone to adopt remote work as a completely normal thing. Even then though I'd expect salaries to track somewhat with local cost of living.

They go great lengths to justify why salaries are paid location based: https://about.gitlab.com/2019/02/28/why-we-pay-local-rates/

I think that's a wise decision because it allows you to stay where you are without pushing you into another country just to benefit from lower living costs while having a comparatively high income.